Summer Of Hogwarts
by instar
Summary: Hermione gets home from her cousin's house and has a surprise resulting in her ending up at Hogwarts for the summer. Who else is there and how much do they really have in common? Please rr!
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Author's Note:

Okay, not my first fanfiction, though I havent written for a while. Please read and review, constructive (i.e. not mean) criticism welcome, but preferably lovely jubbly comments please 

If anybody has any suggestions I'm open, would like to incorporate different ideas 'cause it makes a story more fun!

Ta for reading anyway, instar xxx

Disclaimer:

For entire story, I don't own JKR or any of the characters (except maybe Louise, I don't think Hermione has a sister in the books?) or the HP world or anything. So don't sue me. And I don't think I'm copying anyone's ideas, I havent read any stories where this happens, or if I'm in the process of reading one it hasn't happened yet!

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**.Summer of Hogwarts.**

**Chapter I. **

She gazed out the window as the Hogwarts express advanced through the countryside, invisible to the naked Muggle eye. Sat in a compartment on her own, she wondered whether anyone else would be at Hogwarts when she got there.

The summer had been a nightmare. That would be putting it lightly. After coming home and going to America for a week (to stay with her cousins, horror of horrors), she had returned home to a silent house, eerily silent. She closed her eyes in pain as she remembered.

_Dirt crunched under her feet as she walked through the hallway, and she frowned, her mother was nearly as much of a neat freak as she was, how come the house wasn't spotless? She called out to her parents, and heard a squeak come from upstairs. _

_Stepping cautiously up the stairs, she took her wand from her shoulder bag, hiding it in her jacket, but not so hidden she couldn't use it instantly. On the landing, she saw a limp hand on the floor in her sister's room, and ran to see Louise's lifeless body on the floor of her room._

_Being a witch herself, Hermione knew how to recognise the effects of the Unforgiveable Curses, and this, she knew instantly, was the evidence of Avada Kedavra. She gave up all pretence of hiding her wand and snuck a look through the crack in the hinge of the door, before she left to tip toe to her parents' bedroom. _

"_Mum," she whispered, and her voice would have cracked if it had been any louder. She walked over to the body sprawled on the bed, in a familiar purple dressing gown, with the family's crazy curly hair. As she walked round the bed to see the face of her dead mother, she nearly tripped over the unmoving body of her father, crumpled on the floor, seemingly kicked towards the underside of the bed. "Oh Merlin, dad."_

_She started to crouch down to check – in vain – his vital signs, but was stopped by a sound in the hallway._

"_Hush! The door's open, someone's here."_

"_Who?"_

"_The girl?" She didn't recognise the voices, but didn't really want to. She creapt as quietly as possible into the en suite bathroom, and tried to calm her breathing as she made an attempt at the small window. She thanked God her father kept the windows well oiled, and kept a tight hold on her wand as she wriggled through the window, falling to the ground and trying to stay conscious. _

_She stood up, wincing as a branch snapped under her feet. The sound of footsteps inside meant that someone had heard her and she needed to do something, trapped in the back garden as she was._

"_Oh Merlin please let this work," she whispered and she closed her eyes as she prayed not to splinch, as she apparated for the first time._

The train was free from the usual, 1st of September chatter, and free from the other students excited for the first day of term. There was only one carriage this time, with her and Mad-Eye, the one who'd found her (un-splinched thank God) outside 12 Grimmauld Place, and taken her back later to get her belongings before heading back to Hogwarts.

Finally pulling into Hogsmeade station, Hermione gathered her trunk and bags, donning her robe as she carefully stored her wand on one of the inside pockets. No one knew yet who had killed her family, or why, and it was being taken as a given that it was Death Eaters. Hermione saw no reason not to believe this theory, despite her usual policy of 'innocent until proven guilty'.

She alighted from the train, thanking Moody for accompanying her, before walking through the small wizarding town to get to the front gates of Hogwarts. She felt truly safe upon entering the school grounds, despite knowing that nowhere could guarantee safety in these times. She wondered aloud what the school was like empty, during the summer. Without Professor Snape favouring Slytherin, and without the strict eyes of Professor MacGonagall.

As she entered the Great Hall she heard her footsteps echo, and for the first time in her entire time at Hogwarts felt entirely alone within the castle's welcoming walls. Footsteps stopping behind her caused her to whirl round, nearly reaching for her wand until she realised who it was.

"Professor Dumbledore," she breathed with a sigh of relief.

"Miss Granger. You will be staying in your dormitory for the next year while you are here. Naturally that will be the head girl's dormitory," he smiled, with a small twinkle in his eye, comforting her despite the aching pain in her heart. "We also have a guest in the new head boy for this year, controversial choice I know, in Mr Malfoy, but you never know, you might have more in common than you think."

"Why's Malfoy here? Shouldn't he be with his father, eating death as it were?"

"Mr Malfoy may surprise you Miss Granger. If you'd follow Dobby, he will show you to your dormitory. You may have the 'run of the castle' as it were, but please don't venture outside the grounds unaccompanied by a member of the order." She nodded, and followed the small, chattering house elf to a portrait of a majestic looking couple in the Hogwarts robes.

Since leaving home earlier in the summer, she had learnt to pay more attention to the small things, and noticed the house badges on the robes the two students were wearing, seeing the intricate hairs in the lion's mane, and the detailing on the scales of the serpent in the pair's robes.

"Password?" The girl said, staring down with a somewhat familiar, haughty expression.

"Now, now Alice. She doesn't know it yet," her partner turned to Hermione, "The password is veritas." The painting swung forwards, revealing the entrance to a luxurious common room, with sofas and bookshelves, wooden tables and study areas, more than enough for just the head boy and girl. Hermione stepped forwards, and Dobby took her things up to her bedroom – on the left hand side, up a sweeping staircase by a scarlet and golden Gryffindor emblem.

The opposite staircase had a silver and emerald Slytherin emblem, and, as Dobby disappeared and the portrait swung closed, a figure with blond hair and gray eyes wandered down the stairs, more relaxed than Hermione had ever seen him.

"Malfoy," she muttered, acknowledging rather than scathing, trying to be nice, thinking about what Professor Dumbledore had said. He couldn't be that wrong, could he?

He nodded in her direction, sitting down on a sofa and summoning a book from one of the shining mahogany desks. He seemed quieter, more reserved than Hermione remembered, certainly not as sarcastic, mean and downright nasty as he had been before.

She sat down on the other end of his sofa, and kicked off her shoes, banishing them to beside the door, where they settled neatly, one beside the other. She looked inquisitively over to see what book he was reading and he looked up at her, with a questioning expression, asking, 'what _are_ you doing', with his eyes alone.

"I was just wondering what you were reading," she answered quietly, and he closed it so she could see the cover. It was the Malfoy family tree.

"I was looking to see where my father got his bastard ness from." Malfoy replied shortly, knowing what she was about to ask, and she seemed slightly taken aback. "I heard what happened. I'm sorry."

"Wha… huh?" She replied, confused by this sympathy from the Slytherin prince.

"You're not the only one who's lost, Hermione. My mother tried to sneak me out to her niece, so I wouldn't have to join my father. She succeeded in that at least." He sneered softly, as he thought of his father's sadistic killing whilst working for Lord Voldemort.

"You mean Tonks?"

"Yeah, she brought me here," suddenly, Malfoy seemed to realised who he was opening up to, and shut up, stalking back towards his own dormitory, up the sweeping staircase to the right of the common room.

"Malfoy… Draco. Wait." _Oh God what do I say now? _He turned round, his face turned in her general direction, but his eyes rested on his feet. "Don't go. There's no one else here, and to be quite honest with you I don't want to be left alone."

"Alright," she knew she'd appealed to the part in him that felt the same, and they sat down together on the sofa. There were no insults, no scathing comments, nothing. It was like something had changed in the weeks between school ending, and now. They both knew what it was. They had something in common now, more than something. They shared a hatred for the people who had killed the ones they loved, they shared a loss, and they shared a loneliness inside the usually friendly castle walls.

They didn't really talk sat there together, they didn't feel they could share things in that way. But they shared the silence between them, and understood that neither wanted to talk.

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	2. 2

A/N: sorry for the delay, been revising for various oral exams (french, german and spanish inside a week :P u try! Lol!) and then the internet went down which was pretty crap to be quite honest!

Anyways, its finally here so enjoy!

Please r/r! I appreciate them all!

Luv instar

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**.Summer of Hogwarts.**

**Chapter II.**

Hermione woke up laying sprawled across a scarlet sofa, with a book open across her chest. She lifted it off, and stood up, straightening her robes, before starting up the stairs to her dormitory to go and get changed for supper. She changed into some jeans, and a cream roll-neck sweater, slipping on some slippers to walk through the corridors to the Great Hall, where the house elves were preparing a small supper for the few members of staff and Draco and Hermione.

As she stepped out through the painting, she got the funny feeling that she'd interrupted a conversation and turned round to see the couple in the painting leant against opposite frames of the picture. She stepped closer, curiously, and asked Alice (for she didn't know the boy's name) who they were.

"We were the head boy and girl many years ago, when the robes were luxurious and classes were formal. I'm Alice Black, and this is Alastair Simons." She replied, flicking her long, poker-straight blonde hair over her shoulder as the haughty look returned to her face. Alastair just stood there, studying Hermione secretly, watching her face, and her eyes, brown eyes leading you down into their depths.

She met Draco coming out of the library, and they walked into step as they went down the stairs and through the great double doors, open and letting them enter the Great Hall freely. The sky showed a beautiful summers' evening, the sky a clear, spotless blue, getting darker by the second. It reminded her of the sky at her cousins' house in America. She supposed she should write them a letter soon, to tell them she was alright.

Then it struck her, as they sat down to dinner. She had disappeared from the Muggle World entirely now. She didn't exist, there was no way any Muggles could find her, no matter how hard they looked. She found this hard to understand and tried to wrap her thoughts round it, and in doing so realised also that she should write to Harry and Ron. They would be worrying about their best friend, lost without a trace.

"Don't worry," she heard a friendly old voice, as Professor Dumbledore sat down opposite them along the long dining table, looking small and out of place in the empty hall. "I was at Number 12 earlier, they know where you are. Harry tried to get me to take you there, but I feel you're safer here for now."

"Okay," she responded, relief in her voice. A grunt sounded from the other end of the hall, as Professor Snape strode in, a distasteful expression on his face.

"Severus! How nice to see you, how is Lucinda?" Hermione exchanged confused looks with Draco, neither knowing who Lucinda was.

"She's miserable, will not eat nor sleep because of Narcissa's death," it appeared that Professor Snape had not noticed Draco's prescence at the table, as Draco continued to just push the food around his plate, and eventually got up, pushing his plate away and shoving his hands deep into his pockets until they would not go any deeper, shuffling out of the hall, with a mixture of sadness and an attempt not to show emotion on his face.

Hermione only noticed as he walked away, how relaxed he looked in dark jeans and a black turtle neck sweater. His blond hair had grown, so it was not long, but fell over his forehead, not quite reaching his eyes.

"Professors, if you don't mind me asking, who is Lucinda?" she asked tentatively, and Professor Dumbledore glanced over at Professor Snape before replying to Hermione's question.

"Lucinda is Severus' wife. They have been married since a year after graduation. She is… was best friends with Narcissa Malfoy." Hermione nodded and asked whether any of the other teachers were married. "Yes," he started with a laughing glint in his eyes, "contrary to popular belief our classes are not the only entertainment and love in our lives."

Hermione looked down at her plate, shocked to notice she'd finished her supper, and excused herself, ready to go to the head girl and head boy dormitories, to see Draco and read a bit before they went to sleep, maybe write a letter. Somehow, it seemed harder to write a letter though, it would mean facing what had happened again, when she did so every night in her dreams as it was.

Draco wasn't sat in the common room when she arrived through the portrait, and she didn't know whether she should try his dormitory or not. She decided to in the end, and carefully walked up the spiralling steps to his bedchamber. As she approached the door, she called out his name and he appeared through the door, asking her what she wanted, as if he was fine.

"To see if you're alright… you left supper in kind of a hurry," she replied, waiting outside the heavy wooden door. He opened it and gave a weak smile, asking if she wanted to come in. She hung back, unsure whether this was the best idea in the world, and he gave a lopsided grin, asking whether she was afraid of him. "No," she replied defiantly, stepping with a feigned confidence into his room.

"Good, you shouldn't be. Do you, um, would you like to talk about what happened?" She didn't have to ask to know what he meant, and she shook her head, murmuring that it was too soon, and she felt she'd just break down if they did talk about it. "That's cool. Look," he said as they sat down on the end of his bed, she slightly more fidgeting than he. "I'm not gonna bite. I may have said some nasty things to you the past few years, but guess what? I never thought anything bad would happen to me. It was always other people. I guess, in a way this is my punishment for making you that miserable. And I really want to apologise for that, I feel awful and I want to make it up."

"How would you want to do that?" she asked, intrigued.

"Be your friend, if you want me to," he asked with a hint of a hope resting in his voice as he smiled weakly at her, obviously still upset about what had happened to his mother. She waited for a minute, thinking. It was obvious that he needed someone to talk to, and to be honest so did she despite the fact that she didn't want to talk yet. They were going to be the only students in the castle for another month at least, and that would be an excuse, if any, to make friends and see if they could put their differences behind them.

"Yeah.. as long as you don't tell Harry and Ron!" She laughed, and he listened. Her laugh wasn't pretty by any means, laughs generally werent. But it sounded fun, and he felt a pull in his heart as he realised that he rarely ever had fun like that, even before the pain of his mother's death earlier in the summer had struck him down.

He stayed silent for a minute, just staring blankly at the floor, before she asked him what he was thinking about.

"Just stuff. Generally. You're lucky to have friends like Potter and Weasley. You don't know how lucky you are." He replied quietly and she asked him who his best friend was. "I, um… I guess I don't really have a best friend. Or a good friend. It might shock you to know I've never had a good friend, apart from Pansy, but I never told her about the really important stuff, like the Death Eater thing."

"You mean Parkinson?" Hermione fought the urge to laugh about Draco being good friends with Pansy Parkinson, as he nodded, "she always struck me as the ditsy blonde type… only, you know, brunette." He laughed, before replying, liking the sound of his laughter, it being a strange sound to his ears.

"She is, but you know, even ditsy blondes can be friendly and even intelligent sometimes." She smiled and asked what he thought of the bookish type, shyly avoiding his eyes as she asked. "You never know, even bookworms can be beautiful and even sexy sometimes."

She looked up at him, her brown eyes wide as she tried to figure out whether he was serious or just thinking of a what-if scenario.

He smiled at her big brown eyes, framed by her slightly tan skin, with brown curls tumbling down the side of her face as she tried to figure out his comment.

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End file.
